Monthly Archives: May 2012

Amazon announced this week that its Appstore now allows Android users to "Test Drive" applications... and try out them before purchasing or downloading.

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Although Amazon has offered Test Drive for Web apps for more than a year, the reality of the marketplace is that most apps are downloaded to mobile devices. Being able to try mobile apps out before making a purchase will have a more meaningful effect on buyers.

In a post on its Appstore developers blog Amazon said, “Today we begin the beta rollout of Test Drive on Android phones. Now customers can instantly try apps on their phone — where a majority of app purchases take place — without downloading or installing anything.”

"The more we remove friction for customers who want to try apps, the more apps they will try. Those customers are more likely to find apps they are excited to download. In this way, Test Drive helps customers understand the value of premium apps and helps drive downloads of premium apps."

Test Drive has already been enabled for more than 16,000 Web apps, and is currently available on more than 5,000 apps for Android phones. Amazon promises that they’ve only just gotten started.

During the San Francisco Small Business Week, Neal O'Farrell, executive director of Identity Theft Council, gave a speech that ought to worry anyone who uses a mobile banking app. According to O'Farrell, 8 in 10 mobile banking applications are flawed and do not provide adequate protection of user data. Even the iPhone 4S and MacBooks considered to be a well-secured devices, are not immune to attacks.

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The ITC is a San Francisco-based non-profit that specializes in providing support to victims of identity theft. O’Farrell says they have a solution – protect personal data by erasing or encrypting it, regardless of what platform is being used.

“There were more data breaches than U.S. residents last year and more cases of identity theft than just about all other crimes combined,” O’Farrell said. “You’ve got to wake up [and] protect yourself, even if you use a Mac,” he said, citing the massive Flashback virus that affected more than 600,000 Mac

During its unveiling at the Mobile World Congress in February the reception for the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 was not what Samsung expected.

A similar the C-Pen has a great stylus design that imitates the press of a finger, but with a finer tip that makes taking notes and revising documents more accurate. View the latest in Stylus pen technology from top brands such as Incipio, Targus, Kensigton, Griffin, HTC and of course Samsung.

One of the big flaws of the tablet was lack of a place to place to store the S-Pen. Samsung took it back for a redesign and the tablet now includes a slot to hold the advanced S-Pen stylus. While the stylus had to be slimmed down to fit inside the tablet, there will be a holder kit available for those who want the larger S-Pen feel.

An electronics manufacturer released a set of pictures to MacRumors showing the front panel of what is supposedly the next generation iPod Touch. Better yet, we know based on past experience that the iPod Touch and the iPhone of the same generation usually share the same screen size and resolution. Just maybe the next iPhone is going to have a similar screen?

Twenty-four hours ago the word on the street was that the new iPhone would feature a 3.95" screen. Now that MacRumors has gotten their hands on the leaked parts, everyone’s talking about a taller, 4.1-inch screen. The viewable portion on the iPhone 4S is slightly smaller than the opening provided by the front panel, so that might explain the difference in the measurements.

Rumors of the death of the “tablet” have been highly exaggerated. There were those who predicted smartphone-tablet hybrids like the Samsung Galaxy Note wouldn’t find a market. Then Samsung goes and sells 5 million of them in less than five months. Well on their way to meeting there 10 million unit goal for 2012, it’s a good thing Samsung didn’t listen to the naysayers.

According to a new report from market research firm ABI, Samsung’s Galaxy Note has started a new trend. As ABI analyst Joshua Flood put it, “One of the chief drivers for tablets is the amount of time people use their smartphones for web browsing, reading articles and newspapers on the go, or simply navigating their journeys. The larger screen sizes make a significant difference to the user’s experience when compared to conventional-sized touchscreens between 3.5 to 4 inches.” ABI predicts shipments of the devices will increase by a factor of 10 this year over last year.

Sales of tablets like Galaxy Note and LG’s Optimus Vu are expected to surpass 208 million in 2015. ABI describes the trend as “the dawn of the tablet era”. HTC, LG and Huawei are all expected to release their own devices later this year.

News of the high demand among carriers for the Samsung smartphone surfaced last week. While a Vodafone spokesperson wouldn’t state numbers in their conversation with The Inquirer, the company did say preorders of Samsung’s latest Galaxy phone have been astounding, “With over a week to go until launch, it’s already the most pre-ordered Android device we’ve brought into our smartphone line-up to date and our limited time offer of 2GB of mobile data and 100 free music tracks is being snapped up.”

If there are any fears about the future of a Job-less Apple, Apple’s VP of Industrial Design Jonathan Ive wants to put them to rest. In an interview this week with The Telegraph, Ive said that his most impressive work at Apple has yet to come. We’ll take him at his word. Jobs sure knew how to surround himself with an amazing team of talent.

Ive is one of the Apple leaders who helped make Apple become the most valuable company in the world. Ive played a major part of the creation of more than a few of Apple’s superstars, including the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, and he says that Apple’s best work is yet to come. When asked by The Telegraph’s Shane Richmond which of his designs he will most likely be remembered for, Ive said, ”That’s a really tough one. A lot does seem to come back to the fact that what we’re working on now feels like the most important and the best work we’ve done, and so it would be what we’re working on right now, which of course I can’t tell you about.”

Although Windows 8 is expected to launch in October, Microsoft still has big plans for its Windows 7 operating system sales. According to a Bloomberg report, Microsoft expects 350 million devices running its Windows 7 software to be shipped globally this year as it prepares the next version of the operating system.

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Windows 7 has surpassed XP as the most widely used operating system in the world according to new data from StatCounter. The operating system now has a 40.21% usage share of the global desktop OS market, compared to Windows XP, which has a 38.64% market share. Windows XP is trailed by Mac OS X and Linux. Microsoft first released Windows 7 in October of 2009, and its versatility and ability to run on everything from low-powered netbooks that were typically powered by Windows XP, to high-powered desktops and business machines has no doubt contributed to its success.

At a forum in Seoul, South Korea Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said “It makes Windows the most popular single system.” Although Ballmer didn’t provide any stats to back that up, the statement rings true. Windows 7 was released in October 2009 and within two years it surpassed Windows XP to become the world’s most popular OS.

Friends of WikiLeaks (FoWL), an encrypted social network for like-minded individuals, has just been launched by backers of the whistle-blowing organization WikiLeaks.

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As described on the WikiLeak home page, “Friends of WikiLeaks is a network of people from across the globe who defend WikiLeaks, its people, its alleged sources and its mission. We publicly and privately promote WikiLeaks and individuals and organisations aligned with the mission of WikiLeaks. This site will help you to join with people like you in your area and across the world. You will make new friends and new allies, care for treasured values and fight in common cause.”

Through FoWL, WikiLeaks plans on having an active role in the creation of online friendships. Instead of having users find people to friend, FoWL will assign users 12 friends each - six from a similar geographic location and six others from other parts of the world who speak the same language.

If users join and are inactive, their fellow group members will be able to boot them out of the group and be automatically assigned a new “friend”.

The latest Apple buzz indicates that the next-generation iPhone will feature an upgraded high-definition 3.95-inch Retina display. Apparently Apple is still testing several new iPhone models, but at least one of the samples includes an upgraded 640 x 1,136-pixel Retina display that measures 3.95 inches diagonally. The current iPhone 4S has a 960x640 resolution and 3.5-inch screen.

With an aspect ratio of close to 16:9, the new Retina display is said to be the same width as the current model only taller. Apple is apparently considering adding a fifth row of icons to the home screen in a version of iOS 6. This would probably be exclusive to the new iPhone since it will be the only one with a larger display.

This news contradicts last week’s reports from both The Wall Street Journal and Reuters, which stated that Apple had already placed orders for the new iPhone model with its new display panel suppliers. Panel orders could not yet have been placed if Apple is still testing display sizes.